Method and apparatus for making bag closures united in strip form and dispensing individual bag closures



Jan. 5, 1965 F. e. PAXTON 3,163,970

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING BAG CLOSURES UNITED IN STRIP FORM ANDDISPENSING INDIVIDUAL BAG CLOSURES Original Filed March 7. 1961 3Sheets-Sheet I INVENTOR.

G. Pqxrav Jan. 5, 1965 F. G. PAXTON 3,163,970

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING BAG CLOSURES UNITED IN STRIP FORM ANDDISPENSING INDIVIDUAL BAG CLOSURES Original Filed March '7, 1961 3Sheets-Sheet 2 WWW- 3 INVENTOR. 59 4070 6. Paxrau 3,163,970 CLOSURESUNITED IN STRIP Jan. 5, 1965 F. G. PAXTON METHOD AND APPARATUS FORMAKING BAG FORM AND DISPENSING INDIVIDUAL BAG CLOSUREIS Criginal FiledMarch 7. 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3- J3 INVENTOR.

[Z 0 Y0 6 Pnxrow United States Patent 01 6 Claims. or. 53-19) Thisinvention relates to bag closures and particularly to the arts ofproducing such bag closures and dispensing the same for application toflexible bags.

Bag closures of the general type sold under the trademark Kwik Lok byKwik Lok Corporation, Yakima, Washington, comprise a sheet of relativelystiff but springy plastic material A; of an inch, 1% inches long andabout .032 inch thick with a bag-neck-receiving mouth formed thereinbetween two closely spaced coplanar jaws with diverging lips. The neckof a partially filled flexible plastic bag is adapted by any of severalmethods to be introduced between said jaws so as to be compactly trappedin said mouth, thus closing the bag. The Kwik Lok closure, and twomethods of and a machine for applying the same to close a flexible bagis shown in my US. Patent No. 2,705,100.

Bag closures of the Kwik Lok type have heretofore been manufactured bypunching these from a strip of plastic sheet material 78 of an inchwide, and packaged as individual separate closures stacked in columnform. These columns have been conveniently held together by metal strapsinserted through the mouths of the closures in each column and thelatter then transferred from these straps to magazines of dispensingmachines designed for applying the individual closures to flexible bags.

One of the major problems in heretofore dispensing Kwik Lok typeclosures to present the same individually for application to flexiblebags was the need for feeding these closures edge to edge from the lowerend of a magazine holding a vertical column of closures. Adjacentclosures being thus fed tended to become overlapped and thus jam thedispenser.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturingand dispensing bag closures of the Kwik Lok type which obviates thepossibility of adjacent closures jamming the dispenser due tooverlapping.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method ofproducing the Kwik Lok type of closure which will eliminate the need forcolumnizing the closures in packaging and dispensing the same and whichwill substantially decrease the cost of production, packaging anddispensing of said closures.

Another object is to provide such a method in which said closures areincompletely punched from said strip of plastic so that adjacentclosures formed from said strip remain attached to each other integrallyby incompletely severed contiguous portions of said strip so that thestrip may be coiled or packaged in lengths each containing a substantialnumber of closures connected edge to edge, and the closures thussupplied to a closure dispensing device.

A further object is to provide such a method of manufacturing closuresof the Kwik Lok type in which the final step of manufacturing theclosure is effected in the ct of applying the closure to a bag to closethe latter.

Still another object is to provide a closure dispenser for receivingpartially formed closures in a continuous strip embodying a multiple'ofclosures in edge-to-edge relation and presenting said closures insequence to facilitate the applicationof the foremost closure to aflexible bag and the'separation of said closure from said stripfollowing such application.

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A still further object is to provide such a dispenser in which theremoval of said closed bag from said dispenser draws said strip intosaid dispenser to advance another closure to a position where it may beapplied to a bag.

A yet further object of the invention is to provide such a dispenserwhich is relatively simple, inexpensive to manufacture, and free ofmaintenance problems.

In prior methods of manufacturing and dispensing Kwik Lok closures thecolumnized stacks of individual closures were disposed vertically forgravity feeding. A novel method of dispensing individual closures fromsuch a stack is shown in the copending application Serial No. 73,115,filed December 1, 1960, now Patent No. 3,061,983, by Jere F. Irwin onMethod and Apparatus for Applying Bag Closures. This method includes thesteps of feeding closures horizontally from the lower end of themagazine and flexing the front or mouth end of the foremost closuredownward from the balance of the closure to facilitate the introductionof the bunched open neck of a flexible bag into said mouth by flexingapart the jaws of said closure. This downward flexing of the leadingportion of the leading closure in the Irwin dispenset, of itself tendsto occasionally cause overlapping of closures and jamming of thedispenser.

It is another object of the invention to provide a method ofmanufacturing and dispensing closures of the Kwik Lok type in which theclosures are formed in a strip and fed to the dispenser and through thelatter in a single flat plane, said plane being inclined sharplydownward from horizontal in the direction of travel of said closures,thereby facilitating the application of the lead ing closure to a bagwithout the necessity of flexing a leading portion of said closure fromthe plane of thebalance thereof to attain this facility.

This application is a division carved out of copending applicationSerial No. 93,888, filed March 7, 1961, on Bag Closures United in StripForm and Method and Apparatus for Making the Same and DispensingIndividual Bag Closures.

The manner of accomplishing theforegoing objects as well as furtherobjects and advantages will be made manifest in the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of the dispensing apparatus of theinvention.

PEG. 2 is a side elevational view of FIG. 1 illustrating the manner inwhich the neck of a flexible bag is bunched and presented to saidapparatus for inserting said neck into the mouth of the foremost bagclosure in a strip of such closures being fed to said apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front elevational view of the dispensing head ofsaid apparatus taken in an upwardly inclined direction parallel with theplane in which said strip of closures is fed to and through said head.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional View taken on the line 4-4 of FIG.1 and illustrates the manner in which the jaws of the leading closureembodied in the strip of closures beirn fed to and through saiddispensing head, are deflected downwardly by the application of abunched bag neck thereto so as to facilitate the passage of said neckbetween said jaws and into the mouth of i the closure.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG. 4 partially broken away to show thepositions of parts in said dispensing head prior to the introduction ofa bunched bag neck into said head as shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 66 of FIG. 4 whichillustrates-the manner in which the foremost closure of said strip isheld against reverse movement during the application thereof to thebunched neck of.

said bag and also how said bunched neck engages a release arm of saiddispenser head which disengages the lock of said head thereby permittingwithdrawal of the foremost closure therefrom with the withdrawal of saidbunched bag neck from said head.

FIG. 7 is aview similar to FIG. 6 and illustrates the start of thewithdrawal of the foremost closure from the dispenser by withdrawing thebag, the neck of which is trapped in the mouth of said closure. 7

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 88 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 7 and illustrating the separation ofthe foremost closure from the strip of closures with which it hadtherefore been integrally embodied.

FIG. 10 is a full scale view of a preferred form of the strip bagclosures of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a'fragmentary perspective view illustrating the preferredform of bag closure produced by the method of the present invention andillustrates this after it has been separated from the strip in which itis originally formed and applied to the neck of a plastic bag so as toclose the latter.

Referring specifically to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 11, abag closure 15 is here shown applied to the bunched neck 16 of a plasticbag 17 so as to close the latter. The closure 15 represents a preferredform of the Kwik Lok type of closure which it is the primary object ofthe present invention to produce and effectively apply to plastic bagsfor closing the same as shown in FIG. 11. The closure 15 is formed offiat sheet material of relatively stiff but springy plastic and is aboutVs of an inch wide, 1 /2 inches long and about .032 inch thick with abag-neck-receiving mouth 18 formed therein between two closely spacedco-planar jaws 19 with diverging lips 20 which diverge outwardly from anarrow passage 21 which separates the jaws 19 and affords entrance tothe mouth 18.

Each closure 15 is formed symmetrically about its axis lengthwise withthe mouth 18 and jaws 19 located at the right or forward end of eachclosure as these are illustrated in the drawings. Each closure 15 hasparallel side edges 22 and 23, a transverse back edge 24 and angledcorner edges 25 which preferably are disposed at angles of 135 relativeto the side edges 22 and 23. r

The invention includes a novel method of economically producing closures15 so that a multiple of these closures are united end to end in stripform, as in a strip S, a preferred form of which is shown in FIG. 10.The connection between contiguous closures 15 in strip S is temporaryand intended to be pulled apart to separate the foremost closure in thestrip from the balance of the closures therein when applying theforemost closure to a bag 17.

In this method the preferred manner of partibly connecting contiguousclosures in strip S is to die-cut the closures 15 out of a continuousplastic tape of the same width as the closures 15 so as to leave certainportions 3d of the tape integrally connecting adjacent closures. Thepartible portions 30 lie in transverse planes T which mark the front andback ends of contiguous closures.

Each plane T contains the back edge 24 of the closure 15 which lies justin advance of that plane and this back edge forms the front boundary ofa keyhole shaped hole 31 which forms the bag-neck-closing mouth 18, thepassage 21 and the diverging lips 20 of the jaws 19 of the closure 15 inwhich this hole is formed. Also formed in each die-cutting operation isa pair of like triangular notches SZ which are cut from side edges 22and 23 symmetrically with the planes T. The apices of notches 32 thuslie in planes T and are directly adjacent the partible portions 3% ofthe strip S which unite contiguous closures 15. These notches also formthe corner edges 25 of the closures 15. Successive die-cuttingoperations 7 in forming the strip S are preferably performed in a punchpress in which the blank tape from which the strip S is to be formed isfed automatically 1 /2 inches at timed intervals, each of thesemovements taking place between successive die-cutting operations.

The strip S travels intermittently, between die-cutting operations, in adirection from right to left as this strip is illustrated in F 1G. 10.In other words this movement is in a reverse direction to that in whichthe strip travels incidental to the application of individual closures15 to flexible bags 17. As the strip S is discharged from the automaticdie-cutting machine it is wound on suitable spools 33 from which thestrip S may subsequently be fed for dispensing closures 15 one at a timeincidental to the application of such a closure to a flexible bag 17 asshown in FIG. 2. For attaining these objects, the invention embraces aclosure dispenser 34 which includes a base 35 which may be secured as bybolts 36 to a. bench 37. Secured as by welding to base 35 is aT-standard 38 which rotatably supports at its upper end a pair offianged rollers 39 which are adapted to rotatably support one of thespools 33, upon which has been wound a coil 4th of closure strip S.

Also amxed to the base 35 as by welding is an inclined head standard 45having a short arm '26 bent outwardly from its upper end so as todecline downwardly at an angle of about 20 with horizontal. The upperend of standard @5 also has Welded thereto a strip guide 47 the purposeof which will be made clear hereinafter.

Fixed to the arm as by bolts 48 is a closure dispenser head 49. Thedispenser head includes a bottom plate 5i which is relatively thick, anda top plate 51 which is relatively thin, these plates being identical inplan outline. This plan is fairly well shown in FIG. 7, with each platebeing rectangularly shaped at the left end and provided with guide arms52 at the right end, these arms having interior convergin guide faces 3which terminate at their inner ends at side walls of a slot as whichextends a short distance longitudinally into the plate and terminates inan enlarged circular end portion 55. in addition to having the featuresabove described in common with plate 53, plate Ell has its upper fiatsurface tooled away adjacent the slot 54 as shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 toprovide an elongated cup-shaped recess fill, the purpose of which willbe made clear hereinafter.

Plates 5% and 51 are held in spaced relation by spacer plates 61 and 62which are shaped in plan as shown in FIG. 6 all of the aforesaid platesbeing provided with suitable aligned holes for receiving the bolts d3and four bolts 63 which hold these plates in rigidly assembled relation.Plates 6i and 62 have parallel inner edges 64 and 65 which cooperatewith the lower surface of plate 51 and the upper surface of plate 59 toform a straight closed guideway 66 for closure strip S, entrance ofstrip S to said guideway being facilitated by chambered end portions 6'7of edges 64 and 65. The front end of plate 61 conforms to the adjacentguide face 53 and this plate and bottom plate 5% have aligned holes forreceiving a pin 68 which extends downwardly a short distance below plate5t Plate 62 has a short spring anchor arm on which one end of acontractile spring 69 is anchored. The front or right end of plate :52terminates to provide a flat open space between bottom and top plates 50and 51 to accommodate a rockable latch N which is lifted to the upperend of a shaft 75 which journals in a suitable hole provided in bottomplate 5i and has fixed to the lower end thereof an arm 77 which is longenough to engage pin 62 when the latch 7@ is rotated in a clockwisedirection. Latch 76 extends laterally beyond the adjacent edge of bottomplate Ell and has the other end of spring 6) connected thereto whichnormally rocks latch it: to swing arm 77 into contact with pin 53 asshown *lGS. 5 and 9. When the latch is so positioned, a stop lug 73plate 62 into guideway er and into the path of a closure strip S beingfed along said guideway. The upper end of shaft 75 may have a head 7%(FIG. 8) which may have a hole 80 provided in plate 51 to accommodatethis. The

provided on latch 76 extends inwardly past edge 65 o" stop lug 78 isadapted to be swung laterally out of guideway as by engagement of thearm 77 from the front as shown in FIG. 6 so as to swing said armrearwardly out of contact with stop pin 68.

As shown in FIG. 4, guideway as may be considerably deeper than thethickness of a closure strip S, but this guideway is only slightly widerthan said strip so as to confine the latter closely in a lateraldirection to the strai ht path formed by said guideway. The cup-shapedrecess so is somewhat narrower than guideway 66 so as to leave marginalareas '79 of the hat upper surface of plate 59 between recess so andlateral side faces 6 and 65 of passageway 66.

Provided centrally in top plate 51 is a hole fit) for receiving abackstop 81 mounted on the front end of a light leaf spring 32 the rearend of hich is secured to plate 51 by a screw The spring lightly urgesthe backstop 81 ownwardly so that when this is not held up by engagementwith an upper surface of a closure strip S it rests on the hat uppersurface of bottom plate 5% as shown in FIG. 4.

Operation As above noted, the closure dispenser receives one end of theclosure strip S formed in a coil 4% on a spool 33 and provides a meansfor performing the final step of producing individual bag closures 15and applying these to the ne ks 16 of flexible bags 17 for closing thelatter. As shown in 1 16. 2, the dispenser head s? or" the dispenser ismounted on the latter in a rigidly fixed position with the head lying ina plane inclined downwardly 29 from horizontal in the direction whichthe strip S is fed to the The head is also positioned so as to beapproximately i. ignment with the strip S as it is fed from the coil 43, and, as the outside diameter of this coil decreases with the feedingof the strip, the latter is supported on the way to the dispenser headby the strip guide 57. Sharp bending of the strip which might cause "mesame to part at one of the planes T, is thus avoided.

FlG. 2 shows how a bag neclr to is bunched when applied manually to aclosure l5 at the time that the latter is the foremost closure in astrip S being fed to the dispenser head inasmuch as the neck to is heldvertically and fed horizontally latter is inclined at an angle of 26forwardly and downwardly relative to horizontal, the bunched bag necr;in, as it is guided by surfaces 53 and slots 53, engages the divergingfaces of jaws B so as to flex these downwardly as sho. 'n in F153. 4thereby increasing the spacing of these jaws and permitting the bunchedbag necl: it? to enter the closure month 13. As tie bunched bag neck isthus manually advanced into the head All it engages arm 77 and rotatesthe rockable latch 7% as shown in FIG. 6 to withdraw stop lug it; fromits normal position blocking withdrawal of the foremost closureCompletion of bunched bag neck i=5 into the closure the delivery of themouth 13 as shown in FIG. 6, thus frees the foremost closure 35 forwithdrawal forwardly merely by pulling forward on the bag neck. This notonly withdraws the foremost closure from the dispel g head 49 but pullsthe closure strip S further into said head so as to move the nextclosure to the foremost closure into the position of the latter as shownin PEG. 9.

An intermediate step in the withdrawal of the foremost closure is shownin FIG. 7, wherein it is noted that as the bunched bag neck 15 l avescontact with the arm 77 the stop lug 78 comes to rest on the right sideedge 23 of the foremost closure 15 and rides on this edge during thebalance of the movement of withdrawing the forer .ost closure from thedispenser head. As soon as this withdrawal brings the right hand notch32, located between the foremost and next closures of the strip S,opposite the stop lug 78, the tension of the spring 69 swings the latch70 to bring the arm '77 against stop pin and extend stop lug 73 intoguideway 65 and into into the head 49 while the the aforesaid notch 32so as to be engaged by the adjacent corner edge 25 of the next closure15 in said strip. This causes the next to the foremost closure 15 to besuddenly halted while the foremost closure 15 is still 7 being withdrawnfrom the dispenser head by pulling on the bag neck 16 trapped in themouth of said closure. The partible portions 30 of the strip Sconnecting the foremost closure with the closure next thereto are thuspulled apart (FIG. 9) thereby completing the production of a separateclosure 15 after this has been applied to the bunched neck of a plasticbag 17 in closing relation with the latter.

The closure 15 formerly referred to as the next to the foremost closureis now the foremost closure in strip S and occupies the same position inhead 49 as the closure just pulled from strip S formerly occupied. Thisnew foremost closure is thus in readiness for a repetition of the stepsjust described for the application of a bunched bag neclr 1d thereto andthe subsequent separation of said closure from the balance of themultiple closure strip S.

In handling the strip S, of course, care must be taken not to bend [thisat too sharp an angle as this tends to cause the untimely parting of theportions 3@ of the strip which unite adjacent closures. It is aparticular advantage of the present invention therefore that means isprovided for feeding the strip S along what is practically a straightpath so as to give a minimum bending tendency to the strip as it isbeing fed to the point where the closures comprised in the strip aresuccessively applied to a flexible bag and separated by pulling eachsuccessively from the balance of the strip.

It is another important advantage of the invention that the method usedin the production of closures 15 eliminates the necessity of handlingthese closures individually as they are always comprised in the strip Sup to the very moment that they are pulled individually therefrom andapplied to a flexible bag.

A further advantage of the invention is found in the opportunty itaffords of applying a bunched bag neck to individual closure in adirection which will flex the jaws 19 out of the plane of the closure toreadily admit the bag neck into the closure mouth 13, without involvingany deflection of the entire forward portion of the closure relative tothe balance thereof as in prior methods of applying individual closuresto plastic bags. This result is obtained by forming the closures in astrip S and then mounting the dispenser 49 at a relatively steepdownward inclination and feeding the strip S to the dispenser along arelatively straight path thereby positioning each closure in the stripas it becomes the foremost closure thereof in a downwardly angledrelation to the bunched bag neck 15 when this is held vertically andadvanced horizontally towands said foremost closure for applying thelatter to the bag neck.

I claim:

1. A method of forming bag closures from a flat strip of thin, springysheet plastic material and applying said bag closures to flexible bagnecks which comprises the steps of uniformly die-cutting said strip atuniformly spaced intervals therealong to divide saidstrip into a seriesof closures each having a bag-neck-confining mouth with a narrow passageconnecting said mouth with an external edge of said closure to provideopposed jaws on opposite sides of said passage, and with adjacentclosures integrally united by partible portions of said strip, saidmouth passage and jaws being at the front end of each closure andsymmetrical with its longitudinal axis, holding the foremost closure insaid strip against backward movement, introducing a bag neck throughsaid passage into said mouth in said closure, pulling forwardly on saidbag neck to advance said strip until the next closure has advanced tothe position originally held by said foremost closure, holding said nextclosure in said 7 necting said foremost and next closures and thusseparate said foremost closure from said strip, and repeatingsuccessively on each of the closures remaining in said strip, as itbecomes the new foremost closure thereof, the steps aforesaid by whichthe first foremost closure was applied to a flexible bag neck andseparated from said strip.

2. In a dispenser for dispensing individual bag closures of flat, stiffbut flexible sheet material, each of which closures has bag neck closingmeans embodied therewith, a series of said closures being seriallyintegrated in a strip with contiguous ends of adjacent closures partiblyconnected together, said dispenser comprising: a body providing aguideway for receiving and guiding said strip along a fixed path andconfining at least the foremost closure and the next closure theretoagainst substantial deflection from said path while exposing said bagclosing means of said foremost closure for application of a bag neckthereto; means preventing reverse movement of said strip along said pathduring said application of said bag neck to said foremost closure; andmeans operative following the application of said bag neck to saidforemost closure to resist said next closure being withdrawn from saiddispenser by pulling on said foremost closure, thereby facilitating theready parting of the means partibly connecting said foremost closure tosaid next closure, by pulling said foremost closure from said dispenser.

3. In a dispenser for dispensing individual bag closures of fiat, stiffbut flexible sheet material, each closure having a bag neck confiningmouth with a narrow passage connecting said mouth with an external edgeof said closure to provide opposed jaws on opposite sides of saidpassage, a series of said closures being serially integrated in a stripwith contiguous ends of adjacent closures partibly connected together,said dispenser comprising: a body providing a guideway for receiving andguiding said strip along a fixed path and confining at least theforemost closure and the next closure thereto against substantialdeflection from said path while exposing said external edge of saidforemost closure for reception of a bag neck through said passage andinto said mouth of said closure; means preventing reverse movement ofsaid strip along said path during said introduction of said bag neckinto said mouth of said foremost closure; and means operative followingthe application of said bag neck to said foremost closure to resist saidnext closure being Withdrawn from said dispenser by pulling on said bagneck, thereby facilitating the ready parting of the means partiblyconnecting said foremost closure to said next closure, by pulling saidforemost closure from said dispenser by pulling on said bag neck.

4. In a dispenser for dispensing individual bag closures of flat, stifibut flexible sheet material each of which closures has abag-neck-conf1ning mouth with a narrow passage connecting said mouthwith a forward external edge of said closure to provide opposed jaws onopposite sides of said passage, a series of said closures being seriallyintegrated in a strip with contiguous ends of adjacent closures partiblyconnected together, said dispenser comprising: a body providing aguideway for receiving and guiding said strip along a fixed path andconfining at least the foremost closure and the next closure theretoagainst substantial deflection from said path while ex- 7 posing thefront end of said foremost closure for the introduction of a bag neckthrough said passage into said mouth of said foremost closure; meanspreventing reverse movement of said strip along said path during saidapplication of said bag neck to said foremost closure; and meansoperative following the application of said bag neckto saidforemostclosure to resist said next closure being withdrawn from saiddispenser by pulling on said foremost closure, thereby facilitating theready parting of the means partibly connecting said foremost closure tosaid next closure, by pulling said foremost closure from said dispenserby pulling on said bag neck.

5. In a dispenser for dispensing individual bag closures of flat, stiffbut flexible sheet material each of which closures has bag-neck-closingmeans embodied there with, a series of said closures being seriallyintegrated in a strip with contiguous ends of adjacent closures partiblyconnected together, and with notches formed in at least one side edge ofsaid strip in the transverse planes in which said contiguous closureends are partibly connectcd, said dispenser comprising: a body providinga guideway for receiving and guiding said strip along a fixed path andconfining at least the foremost closure and the next closure theretoagainst substantial deflection from said path while exposing said bagclosing means of said foremost closure for application of a bag neckthereto; means preventing reverse movement of said strip along said pathduring said application of said bag neck to said foremost closure;locking means preventing forward movement of one of said closures alongsaid path while said closure is in the position of said foremostclosure; and means actuated by the application of said bag neck to saidforemost closure to displace said locking means from locking relationwith said foremost closure to permit the latter to be Withdrawn fromsaid dispenser by pulling on said bag neck, said locking means thenautomatically entering a notch at the front end of said next closurewhen the latter arrives in the original position of said foremostclosure thereby locking said next closure against forward movement alongsaid path and permitting said foremost closure to be separated from saidnext closure by pulling on said bag neck.

6. A method of forming bag closures from a flat strip of thin, springysheet plastic material which comprises the steps of moving said striplengthwise in a given direction and repeatedly die cutting said strip attimed intervals during each of which said strip travels a distance equalto the length of a single closure, to produce in said strip with eachdie cutting operation a partial severing of the strip along a transverseline to produce the rear end edge of a closure on the following side ofsaid line and the front end edge of a closure on the advance side ofsaid line, said front end edge so formed including a mouth for confininga bag neck, said mouth being connected with said front end edge by anarrow passage to provide opposed jaws on opposite sides of saidpassage, and with the closures following and in advance of saidtransverse line integrally connected by partible portions of said strip,moving said strip lengthwise in the opposite direction from thedirection aforesaid, whereby the mouths of all of the closures in saidstrip will be facing in said new direction, feeding the neck of aflexible plastic bag through the passage and into the mouth of theforemost closure in said strip, parting said foremost closure from saidstrip, and applying other plastic bags in the same manner to successiveclosures in said strip as said closures respectively reach the foremostposition therein.

references Qited in the file of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS1,429,465 Tolg Sept. 19, 1922 2,112,627 Ko-hnlc Mar. 29, 1938 2,313,347Kohnle Mar. 1943 2,708,873 Braun May 24, 1955 3,021,654- Harris Feb. 20,l962 3,06l383 Irwin Nov. 6, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 521,552 Canada u Feb.7, i956

1. A METHOD OF FORMING BAG CLOSURES FROM A FLAT STRIP OF THIN, SPRINGYSHEET PLASTIC MATERIAL AND APPLYING SAID BAG CLOSURES TO FLEXIBLE BAGNECKS WHICH COMPRISES THE STEPS OF UNIFORMLY DIE-CUTTING SAID STRIP ATUNIFORMLY SPACED INTERVALS THEREALONG TO DIVIDE SAID STRIP INTO A SERIESOF CLOSURES EACH HAVING A BAG-NECK-CONFINING MOUTH WITH A NARROW PASSAGECONNECTING SAID MOUTH WITH AN EXTERNAL EDGE OF SAID CLOSURE TO PROVIDEOPPOSED JAWS ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID PASSAGE, AND WITH ADJACENTCLOSURES INTEGRALLY UNITED BY PARTIBLE PORTIONS OF SAID STRIP, SAIDMOUTH PASSAGE AND JAWS BEING AT THE FRONT END OF EACH CLOSURE ANDSYMMETRICAL WITH ITS LONGITUDINAL AXIS, HOLDING THE FOREMOST CLOSURE INSAID STRIP AGAINST BACKWARD MOVEMENT, INTRODUCING A BAG NECK THROUGHSAID PASSAGE INTO SAID MOUTH IN SAID CLOSURE, PULLING FORWARDLY ON SAIDBAG NECK TO ADVANCE SAID STRIP UNTIL THE NEXT CLOSURE HAS ADVANCED TOTHE POSITION ORIGINALLY HELD BY SAID FOREMOST CLOSURE, HOLDING SAID NEXTCLOSURE IN SAID STRIP AGAINST FORWARD MOVEMENT, PULLING FORWARDLY ONSAID BAG NECK TO PULL APART SAID PARTIBLE STRIP PORTIONS CONNECTING SAIDFOREMOST AND NEXT CLOSURES AND THUS SEPARATE SAID FOREMOST CLOSURE FROMSAID STRIP, AND REPEATING SUCCESSIVELY ON EACH OF THE CLOSURES REMAININGIN SAID STRIP, AS IT BECOMES THE NEW FOREMOST CLOSURE THEREOF, THE STEPSAFORESAID BY WHICH THE FIRST FOREMOST CLOSURE WAS APPLIED TO A FLEXIBLEBAG NECK AND SEPARATED FROM SAID STRIP.